Sasquatch Chronicles - SC EP:79 Is Bigfoot Real? By Jack

Episode Date: February 12, 2015

Tonight we speak to Jack who is doing a school report on Bigfoot and asked if he could interview us.  

I have to do an oral port for my third grade class and the topic I chose is Bigfoot Real. My name is Jack and welcome to Statschquash Chronicles. 5, 4, 4, 3, 3, 2, 1. When I had come down this hill, I had seen this creature cross the road. They would have ripped my locked door from my truck, extracted me from my vehicle. I knew what a damn thing I could have done about it. This thing I got to notice in its eyes. His eyes was real, real evil, real sinister looking.

You know, the look it was giving him. Next one, what are you reporting? Jesus Christ, you bet. Sheriff, see him. Hello? Get somebody out here. What's going on now, sir? That son of a bitch is about 60 foot nine.

I don't know. Yes, I'm working right in. Uh-oh. Welcome to Sasquatch Chronicles, a place where people share their encounters. Let's start the show. We're with the subject of Bigfoot, and we are fans of your website and podcast. We can't wait for each new podcast and think your two encounters are the best that we're to have the opportunity to talk to you about them tonight, which you could probably tell from

the video my dad sent you earlier. Thank you for allowing me to interview you. I have some questions that I want to ask you. Ready to get started? We are ready, Jack. Whenever you are, bud. What did you know about the subject of Bigfoot prior to your encounter? Where have I heard that before?

That was for you, Will. Good, Will I'll let you take it first and I'll answer after you. What did I know about the subject before? my encounter, nothing. We'd never heard of Bigfoot before. Yeah, I think before my encounter, I mean, obviously I've heard a Bigfoot. And I always thought there was like a small percent chance that maybe there was something out there running around in the woods. But I had hunted with my brother, or brothers, actually, I'd hunted with all of my brothers.

And hadn't really seen anything that made me really believe that there was something out there. prior to our encounter, I'd say I was a little bit more, probably had more knowledge than Will, just because we're in the technology age. Who are you with during your encounter? When I was with, in my encounter, I was with my older brother, who is, who our age differences aren't actually much different between yours and Charlie's. Woody is about four, about four years older than I am, and that's who I'm. I was with during my encounter.

But he's definitely my older, he's my older brother. Yeah, and my, my situation was the first time I found footprints. I was with my friend Mark. We were in junior high at that time. And then when I had my actual first encounter, there was nobody. And then years later, when I had my second encounter, there were a car full of people with me. When and where was your encounter? My encounter was actually in a town called Yakult here in Washington State,

and I know Will has written about that area in one of his books. You're all right, Will? Yeah, I'm making it. No, my encounter actually happened in Yakult, which is here in Washington State, and I know Will's written about it in his books. natives the native americans named it haunted valley and it translates to yacolts but it's up on a place called yacolp mountain and on our website um there i had posted kind of you get an idea of what the area looked like jack and you get an idea of of what's what's kind of in that area but it's it's a

small i guess here in washington state we call it a hill because our mountains are like mountain. Yeah, it's tiny. In other parts of the country, like on the East Coast, they'd probably call them mountains, but here over in Washington, we just call them hills. I don't even know why it's named Yakult Mountain. But yeah, that's where my encounter had taken place. And my encounters were, there's a little area that's in the South Puget Sound Area of Washington State, and we lived in a very rural area called Graham, Washington, just west of Mount Rainier.

and my second encounter was down not far from where West lives on the Washougal River in Washington State. Were they mostly forest locations? Yeah. Yeah, where I had my encounter, it's definitely a forest. I would say it's not a real, and I'm assuming you saw the video, Jack. Yes. I apologize for the swearing in advance. No worry.

but uh but uh yeah in that area it's not a real thick forest i know a lot of people are making comments that it was kind of forests that remind them on the east coast out here generally we have really really thick dense forest but in that general area it's still forested it's a beautiful area um it's not super super thick but it is a very forested area. There's a nice river. There's the Lewis River drainage was right there. It's a beautiful area. But yeah, I would say it's definitely forested.

Yeah, our area was actually pretty heavy, pretty dense as far as the forest goes. I mean, it was that area is sort of mixed farmland and stands of forest. And the underbrush is pretty thick up there. So it's a little bit different than Southern Washington, but not a whole lot. Yeah, and it's an interesting question, Jack, like where Woody and I had our encounter, you can literally drive 25 minutes south and be in downtown Portland, you know, a concrete jungle down there in the middle of the city. So it wasn't, it's not too far out from a major city. So what year were your encounters? My encounter actually happened in 2012, towards the end of, uh, you.

It was November of 2012. The first one was in 1974 and the second one in 1988. So like 100 years before you were born, Jack. Yeah, something like that, you know. Were you searching for Bigfoot or did it find you? I know in mine and Woody's encounter, we weren't searching for anything. We had gone out for a drive. My dad had passed away.

My grandfather had passed away. We had dealt with a lot of deaths in the family and going through other personal things. And we decided to go out for a drive. And we were basically just going out to get away from everything and just kind of talk. And the area that we actually got turned around on one of the back roads and ended up in the spot we ended up, It wasn't the intended spot we were actually heading to. When we had gotten to the spot, they were definitely there at the time, and they came in on us. So it's not like we were out looking for anything.

They kind of came in on us. What happened on my first encounter was it was kind of in the evening right at dusk, and my colleague started barking furiously at the tree line out near our barn. So we had a lot of wild animals that would come in on the property, and I thought, well, it was probably a raccoon or skunk or something, and my dad used to tell me to shoot those if they came in the yard because they might have rabies. So I grabbed a 22 and a couple of bullets,

and I got the dog and told him to go get him, and he ran out to the tree line, and he froze before he got into the trees. And I come up about 50 feet behind him, and he turned around and ran past me back towards the house. So I was kind of confused. He never did that before. So I walked up to the tree line, I could hear something moving inside the tree line,

and I thought, well, maybe it's a porcupine or something. So I pushed my way through the low-hanging tree limbs, and in the clearing in front of me was this huge thing, standing there moving leaves of its foot. So they were already there. And then into the encounter, a second one came around from behind me. And on the second encounter, in the second encounter, we actually were looking at that time.

We'd been finding tracks and snow up on the washer, river and on this particular trip we were driving along up to the snow line and we came around the bend on the road and here this thing was across the river just it was by the water and i guess it heard the car and took off um if any what sounds did the big foot make i know like in mind what he's encounter the only really the only sound that we heard was growling and i think it was from the big one. Now, I'm just speculating on that because we couldn't see it. We could hear it coming up to the back of the car, but we had heard a pretty scary growl. And we heard several of them. Every time it would come up towards a car, it would growl at us. And it was almost a different

type of growl every time. But we didn't hear any real vocals. We didn't hear any of the chatter. I'm sure you've heard people say. We heard deep breathing. And to kind of go into the breathing that we heard, it sounded like kind of a sick animal. It sounded very, it would breathe in just as hard as it would breathe out. It reminded me of a sick animal. That's what I thought more of like a fat guy that just got done running and, you know,

he's choking for air. That's kind of what I had visioned in my mind. It was very, it was a different type of breathing. than I've heard. If someone had asked me, you know, on a serious level, what do you think you heard? I'd probably say it was a sick animal. If I hadn't seen anything that night, I would say it was either a sick bear or some sort of large animal that was ill, just the way it was breathing. The growling was enough to, to terrify me. What about you, Will? You heard any vocals? Well, not during the encounters. They were quiet. And the one I heard the first time, the breathing,

I did hear the breathing course. I was standing less than 15 feet away from it, but it was not raspy or like it was sick. It was more just a deep methodical. But it was kind of like what you described. It was kind of the same coming out as it was going in. But now over all the years that I've done this, I've heard a lot of vocalizations, lots of different types,

you know, the screams and chatters and chimp-like sounds, all sorts of different vocals. were you scared I think that's a big yes yeah I think anyone that's yeah I think anyone that comes across these things Jack that tells you

they're not scared is lying to you because you know and I was thinking about this the other day a lot of times people they'll say what is it about these things that terrifies people for me, I think that it gives the word giant a new definition. You know, when you think of a giant, if you thought of a giant like how I think of a giant,

you know, I think of like the jolly green giant, you know, happy go lucky type of giant. But when you see something that is almost twice your height and five times your size, you were able to define really quick what a giant is. And I think what terrified me the most is the fact that I realized in that moment, if this thing really truly went crazy on us, there's absolutely nothing I could have done. And that's what terrified me the most. And so, I mean, to answer your question, I was scared to death.

And I hate to say that because, you know, I want to be Mr. Macho Man with, you know, big tough guy. But it absolutely terrified me to death just running into these things. It's a terrifying experience. I know, you know, from having growing up, growing up on a farm and used to being around big animals, especially, you know, some of the bulls that my dad had for breeding and things like that. They were, you know, a hunting elk and bear. And I've been, you know, within five feet of a black bear when I was 10.

So those were scary. you know, situations being around big animals sometimes. But when you walk up on one of these things, like Wes said, you know, the size alone, and if there's anything that defines, especially as a youngster, the boogeyman, this is exactly it. And that's exactly how you feel at that moment. Could it have definitely, was it definitely a big foot or could it have been a different animal? Well, see, at the time when, and I'll let will take a step up with that question, but at the time when I saw it, I didn't really,

I didn't really, and even my brother Woody, who was with me at the time, after our encounter, I don't think we really ever said Bigfoot or Sasquatch, or, you know, the conversation that Woody had with me after our encounter, and he dropped me off. I remember Woody said to me, and he kind of looked over at me almost, I'm sure I was as white as he was,

but he looked over at me and he said, what do you think it was? And I said to him, I don't know. I think it's a monster. And it's odd to say that now, but when I had no point of reference to what I was looking at, that's what I was thinking was monster.

I was looking at a monster. And it wasn't until I had contacted Fish and Game and the guy that I talked to said, well, it sounds like you guys ran into Sasquatch. Now, when he said Sasquatch, I had no, I honestly had no idea what he was talking about. If he would have said Bigfoot to me, I would have been like, okay, I get what you're saying. I understand that now. But he had to use the term Sasquatch with me.

And that's what threw me off. And the more and more, like when Woody and I started the podcast, and then as Will came along and has shared a great deal of information, and as we've spoken to people, you realize really quick, what you saw. If you had asked me right after our encounter, I would have told you it wasn't a man, it wasn't a bear, it wasn't any animal I've ever seen. But here's kind of a description of what I saw, and I think it was a monster. Now knowing, I realized that it was a Sasquatch. But to answer your original question, there's no doubt in my mind, it couldn't have been, there's no way it could have been anything else out there. It had to have been one of these creatures is what I saw. Yeah, and you guys actually contacted me not long after your encounter, and I sort of helped you with understanding what was going on, because there were some weird behaviors of these creatures in West and Woody's encounter.

And a lot of people, the way they behaved in that encounter wouldn't necessarily make you think initially that's what it was. Like in my encounter, there was, you know, I walked in and saw this thing standing there, and it was this. big, this enormous manlike creature standing there. I knew it wasn't a man. It was definitely an animal, but it was standing upright like a man. And my first thought was, you know, oh my God, what is this? And then the thought came to me, oh, that must be one of the things that made the footprints we found a couple years earlier in the snow. And so absolutely no other kind of animal. I was very familiar hunting and growing up on a farm with just, I thought I knew everything out there. But that was unlike anything I was familiar with. These are great questions. I think I'm

going to steal some of these when we're interviewing people. Yeah, they are. People sometimes give me grief about believing in Bigfoot at school. Do people ever give you grief about believing in Bigfoot? Not anymore. Yeah, I mean, for me, they still give me grief about believing in Bigfoot. I think you're always going to have the people who haven't seen anything and are absolutely sure that Bigfoot doesn't exist. So always give you a hard time. You know, if you'd ask me, Jack, back when prior to our encounter about people seeing Bigfoot's, I thought most of them were crazy because I had spent so much time out in the woods. You know, like we talked to a lot of hunters now who don't believe in the subject.

And they'll say to me, Wes, I've been everywhere in the woods, and I haven't seen anything. And I get what they're saying. I can completely relate to what they're saying because not too long ago, prior to 2012, I kind of felt the same way. Woody and I, my other brother, Greg,

my younger brother, we had spent so much time out in the woods. And so when people would say that they run into these things, I was kind of like, I don't know. Maybe, maybe not. So for me, you know, you still, you'll always get the people that don't necessarily believe in these creatures. And that's okay if they don't.

But it sure changes your life when you actually run into one. It makes you realize that, well, what else out there that I didn't think existed actually exists that people talk about? you know so you always i think until this subject is proven and there's you know i hate to say like a body's brought in but until there is solid evidence that the scientific community will accept i honestly think he'll still have some of that out there and the subject too is is kind of on the fringe you know a lot of people uh they put it up there with like um UFO sightings and ghost stories

And not saying none of that stuff happens. I'm just saying this is a real flesh and blood creature. People are seeing and people are describing and their descriptions are the same. And my answer to a lot of those people are, you know, we have footprints. We have all kinds of evidence to prove that obviously people are seeing something. I mean, is everyone out there lying? Is everyone out there saying making up stories? Are people, you know, with footprints, people are finding footprints like in the middle of nowhere, you know, or people.

Is there someone hoaxing footprints like in every state? So, I mean, I still do get some of that. I think Will's been in the subject longer, so he may not get a whole lot of that. But I still get some of that. And that's okay. It doesn't, it doesn't bother me and it doesn't change what I've seen. It was a little bit different for me. Of course, I hadn't had my first siting yet.

We found footprints in 1972, and my friend Mark and I went straight. We were heading to another friend's house because it was kind of boring at my house that weekend. And when we found the prints, it kind of scared us because we found some animal intestines in the snow, and they weren't frozen. It was really cold that morning. So we knew whatever put them there was still really close. And the size of the footprints and how many they were scared us. And we took off running.

We got to our friend John's house. and his dad wanted to go see what we found, and he brought a 45 pistol on the camera. And when we got back there, you know, my friend John's brothers and sisters, and Mark and I were there, and John's dad took pictures of the footprints, and then he says, well, let me tell you what I know about this.

And it wasn't a lot, but it was something apparently he had seen on television. And, of course, immediately we're thinking, wow, there really are monsters out here in the woods. So, and all we'd seen was, we just walked up on footprints. So when we got back to my house, you know,

Mark and I were really excited about seeing this and finding out this information. So we told my parents and my sisters, and they laughed us out of the house. That was the most humiliating thing I think I've ever experienced. So two years later, when I actually ran into two of these things, I didn't tell anybody except my friend John and a couple of his brothers when we went tracking him the next morning

because they saw the footprints they knew they were real. And then in the summer of 75, Renee DeHenden came to my house after a friend of mine had contacted John Green. And I don't know if you know who Renee DeHenand and John Green were, but they were the most

famous people in the world for hunting Sasquatches. And after I got to be friends with them, I really didn't care what anybody thought at that point. I'm interested to know how many Bigfoot do you think there aren't in the USA? I've heard you say that there are four types of big foot.

Right. Well, nobody really knows the numbers, but there have to be thousands of them. You know, there has to be a viable breeding population. Yeah, and that's a pretty good question. I know a lot of people, man, these are good questions, Jack. I think you're asking more intelligent questions than a lot of, than we get 90% of the time. But, you know, it's a very, it's a valid question I think a lot of people ask and like Will says we just don't know how many are out there but there has to be

has to be thought there has to be more out there than what people think in order like Will says they have to reproduce and you know have to have children and so there has to be a population of them in order to have offspring have children and and but to give you an answer on how many that are out there, it's too difficult of a question to answer just because no one knows. And anyone that gives you a number is lying to you. I can tell you one, there was one person, and he's passed away since then, but a former anthropology professor at Washington State University by the name of Grover Krantz, who was a friend, his estimate, and this was probably back in the 1970s or 80s, was around 10,000. But And I can't remember what all he based that on. But there has to be, you know, on the American continent, at least that many.

How many do you think there are? How does it split up amongst the four? How many of each type? How many of each type? Yeah. No idea. Nobody knows. Yeah, that's a good.

That's another good question. I think with the types like we talk about Jack with, you know, the. I'm sure you've seen the Patterson film. Yeah. I'm sure with that type, I would think that there's actually more of them. The type ones and twos. The type ones and twos are more of. The type threes are the least number because they occupy a relatively small space

just along the Mississippi River drainage area. Right. And that's what I was going to get into. You know, like the what we call the dog man, you know, the dog man that, you know, I'm talking about, Jack? Yeah. Yeah, that one seems to be more rare. It seems to be a little bit more rare out there.

But, again, to give you a definite number on them, I just, we don't know. There's no way to calculate it. Yeah, it's a valid question, and it's a terrible answer, but we just don't know. But that's the way it is sometimes. Sometimes because this is a great unknown topic, there are a lot of things that simply can't be answered yet. Is Dogman more dangerous than Bigfoot? Well, they're kind of the same thing, really. I mean, the four types are all sort of, and I hate to say, the same creature.

They're just, it's like the difference, say, between gorillas and chimps and baboons and orangutans. They're kind of in the same family, but they're different species. So the type one, like we see in the Patterson film, and the type four, which is a little smaller, a little different type version, are one grouping. And the type twos and threes are a different. different group and the type ones and fours aren't as aggressive as the twos and threes the twos and threes are a lot more aggressive I think that to answer your question that the dog man types do seem to be more aggressive they do seem to be more and kind of like a baboon if you ever look up on yeah if you look up like a

baboon compared to a gorilla you know I would have rather come across to a gorilla than I would a baboon, even though the baboons are a little bit smaller, but they generally tend to be more aggressive and have no trouble with having a violent encounter. You don't have trouble with putting forth any sort of violence. A gorilla may not be as violent as a baboon. And kind of the same way with what we call the dog man. I think the dog man's, we tend to get more aggressive, mean reports from dogmen's than we any other types that we have out there.

Yeah, the type 2s are pretty aggressive too. There's not a lot of difference between them and the type 3. The type 3s, like West said, are more like a baboon. They have kind of a little more of an elongated face, kind of like a baboon. And a lot of A faces are sort of stick out, you know what you mean, where the other types are a flat face. But the type 2 and type 4s have the long canines, and both of them are actually. a lot more aggressive, probably a little, I don't know if you'd say wilder than the other two types, but there's more aggression in those two types than the others.

Yeah, that's what I heard. Got a couple more. What do you think Bigfoot is? A human, an ape, a combination, an alien? Well, there's a lot of different types of primates that we don't know about. The anthropologists, you're still digging up fossils, you're still learning a lot about all these different things. And the Sasquatch isn't really either human or ape. And I don't, I'm kind of hesitant to say there's something in between because we're kind of all in the same general family. They're just something that's different than apes and humans.

They're similar, but they're different. And that's a really good question, Jack. I think that's something a lot of people are asking, are they, you know, is it an alien? is it a well is it an ancient man isn't and it's a valid question you know what is Sasquatch and I think a lot of people you know what is a big foot a lot of people

what we've come to understand what they are and again Will and I don't have one in our garage and in a cage that we're studying but we can go off of what we both of us have seen and we can go off of what but people describe the behaviors on what they do.

And what you'll find with a lot of their behaviors is it's very primate-like. It's very, I would say, somewhere between like a chimp and an ape. It's very, their behaviors are very primate-like. They throw rocks. They scream and yell. They break branches. They'll do different displays like Will's talked about on the show. And so I think Will and I are in agreement in saying that we,

we think it's some form of primate, and we base that off of what people are describing, if that makes any sense, and what we've actually seen. And I'll add one thing to that. They could very well be something that predates both human and apes. Because with a lot of not just Native American cultures, but other parts of the world, in many places in the world, these things have existed. And in all these ancient accounts, people in different regions around the world talk about these creatures already being there when humans came into those places and sort of pushed them out into the mountain areas. And that indicates that they're older because they developed in whatever part of the world, whether it's Asia or Africa. And there were waves of primates that left Africa in Asia. and it's very likely these things are older than we are. So they were out before we were.

A big tall monkey with a bad attitude. That's right. Cincinnati, Ohio. Do you think Bigfoot's are in Ohio? Oh, we should have had Shannon on here. I know. I was just thinking that exact thing. I would say from everything I've heard, the answer would be yes.

Yeah, I don't think Shannon's, and you've heard Shannon on the show, right, Jack? Yeah. Yeah, Shannon's not far from where you're at. And she actually, she takes a lot of encounter stories out that way. But what we're finding is more and more people are reporting them out there in Ohio. I know one area, I've never been there personally, but one area that they talk about, what is it, the Salt Fork State Park? Yeah, it's probably probably no. Yeah, I've heard of Salt Fork.

Yeah, we get a lot of. of encounter stories out of that area. We get a lot of encounter stories. I wish Shannon was here to answer this question. But we get a lot of... Just the one. Yeah.

We get a lot of encounter stories out there. I want to say more towards the west side of the state, kind of the northwest side of the state, where there tends to be a lot of encounter stories. But, you know, honestly, I think anywhere you're going to find wood, you know,

cover like woods, anywhere you're going to find rivers for water, and then lots of deer. I don't think the Sasquatch are too far away from places like that. Yeah, I think as long as they have food and water, they're pretty much going to be anywhere. One more of a fire handed over to Charlie. What are some good books for me to read to learn more about the subject? Well, John Green's books are good. They're probably some of the best out there. Yeah, and you have books, Will.

Your books are cool read too. I know you're too humble to say it. I didn't want to plug him. We should send Jack a couple copies. We'll have to send Jack. Jack, we'll have to send you and Charlie some shirts and stuff. We've got some shirts coming. We'll have to send you guys out some shirts.

And maybe we'll send you a couple copies of Will's books. Will wrote it called Haunted Valley. And it was about a family that lived on a farm, Not far from where Woody and I had our encounter. As a crow flies, it's not far at all. And in that book, he talks about a kid not that much older, not that much older than you, Jack, that actually ran into one of these things on the property.

And it's a great book to read it. If nothing else, I'll send you my copy of it. You can read it. But there's a lot of good books. John Greens are a good one. It goes through different encounters stories. And another good one is, Will you have to help me out the name,

Raincoat Sasquatch with... Robert Alley. Yeah, Robert Alley. That's another really good book. Yeah, there's a lot of great stories in that book. A lot of encounter-type stories. That's cool. You want to read a book. Most people, even now I'm getting to the point where everything's YouTube.

So, that's awesome. I've been trying to figure how to convert mine to YouTube videos. But did you have any... Oh, you're welcome, Jack. Did you have any other questions or anything that we didn't answer or anything you need for your report?

Here's two more for my brother, Charlie. When you saw Bigfoot, was it really an underwear-changing moment for you? It sure was. What's happening, Charlie? I know when I saw them, I didn't, you know, poop my pants or anything, but it was definitely, I mean, you could describe it as an underwear churning moment. It was enough to scare me to death, that's for sure. Very scary, yeah.

Very scary, yeah. When you go out for Bigfoot, do you bring a flute with you? Wes, you have your flute, don't you? Sorry, we couldn't resist. No, no flute for me. No flute for me. Thanks, guys. You're welcome.

Yeah, thank you, Jack. Thank you, Charlie. We appreciate it. That was so much information, guys. got a lot to go on for his report. You guys are more than kind. We really appreciate it. No, anyway we can help out.

Thanks for listening to Saskwatch Chronicles. We'll see you next week. Being across the country faster than the coronavirus and wagering week is your antidote. I'm Tom Barton, and I'm a veteran sports analyst and respected sports handicapper who help build ESPN's brand. I've been recognized and awarded by Pro Football Weekly and Gaming Today magazine as the honest handicapper. Let the other guys give you the same old boring sports talk

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